The role of any design practitioner is to simplify — distill as much meaning into as few elements as possible while still conveying the primary purpose and tone. This has become especially important today, as user experience is paramount — function supersedes form. Thus, it’s essential for every brand asset to have a place.

In this day and age everyone seems to carry the title, “creative director.” Having worked in large corporations, both leading an in-house agency model, overseeing relations of outside agencies and third-party creative freelancers, I’ve found it carries different meanings to different people and within the companies they work.

Multidisciplinary roles are important to have on any team; however, it’s hard for one individual to be responsible for both disciplines — one ultimately suffers. There’s a productive tension that exists between the two.